Yesterday, I imported a large set of data into a Mathematica notebook and stored each imported list of numbers in a function. For example, I would map a list like {10, 20, 30} to a function value as shown below

f[0] = {10, 20 30};
f[1] = {40, 50, 60};

With the lists stored in the functions I generated the below chart by writing

Before going to bed, I saved my notebook and shut down my computer. Today, all my functions have been reset. For example inputting f[0] outputs f[0] rather than the previously assigned list {10, 20, 30}.

Does anyone know what has caused this issue? How can a loss of data be avoided in the future? Is there a better way to store lists than in functions? Is there a way to restore the values from yesterday?

Related Question

The accepted answer to this question provides a method for creating persistence of data between sessions.

$\begingroup$What exactly is the question? You seem to be aware of the fact that Mathematica does not save the kernel state together with the notebook (see linked question), which explains why your values are gone. In general, a notebook should contain everything needed to restore the kernel state (this means e.g. that you have to keep all definitions that are required in the notebook)$\endgroup$
– Lukas LangMar 15 '19 at 8:18

$\begingroup$@LukasLang I was not aware that Mathematica does not save the kernel until recently. The question is what the best wat to create persistence of data in Mathematica.$\endgroup$
– K. ClaessonMar 15 '19 at 8:26

1

$\begingroup$Which way is best depends on your exact workflow and requirements, which you have not stated. For different options, look at the linked question (and questions linked there), Iconize (as suggested by @CarlLange), Put/Export and Get/Import.$\endgroup$
– Lukas LangMar 15 '19 at 8:37

3

$\begingroup$@K.Claesson What other system do you know that saves the state on exit without any user intervention? Most systems can't even save the state at all. Those that can (like R) still require the user to do it explicitly. It is not a natural expectation that definitions would persist.$\endgroup$
– SzabolcsMar 15 '19 at 9:24

2 Answers
2

If you wrap your definitions in Once then their results will be remembered across sessions:

f[0] = Once[Print["a"]; {10, 20, 30}, "Local"]

Here the printing and the numbers {10, 20, 30} are used instead of a lengthy calculation that you only want to do once and whose result you want to remember in the next session.

On the first execution, the above code prints "a" and assigns the numbers {10, 20, 30} to f[0]. On subsequent executions (even after you've closed Mathematica and come back and are reevaluating the notebook), the execution of the first argument of Once does not take place any more, so there is no printing, and only the remembered result {10, 20, 30} is directly assigned to f[0]. This speeds up the reprocessing on subsequent executions dramatically if the list {10, 20, 30} is replaced with something hard to compute.

With Once you don't need to save/restore semi-manually as some comments suggest with Save, DumpSave, Get. Instead, persistent storage operates transparently to cache what has been calculated before.

If you place these Once calls within an initialization cell/group, then you have something resembling a persistent assignment.

Once has more options: you can specify in which cache the persistent storage should be (in the front end session, or locally so that even when you close and reopen Mathematica it's still there) and how long it should persist. See below for more details about storage management.

Another way to create persistent objects is with PersistentValue, which is a bit lower-level than Once but basically the same mechanism.

But Once is terribly slow!

It is true that retrieval from persistent storage is rather slow, taking several milliseconds even for the simplest lookups. Memoization, on the other hand, is very fast (nanoseconds) but impermanent. We can simply combine these two methods to achieve speed and permanence! For example,

g[n_] := g[n] = Once[Pause[1]; n^2, "Local"]

defines a function g[n] that, for every kernel session, only calls Once one time and then memoizes the result. We now have three timescales:

The very first call of g[4], for example, takes about one second (in this case) because it actually executes the body of the function definition:

g[4] // AbsoluteTiming
(* {1.0096, 16} *)

In each subsequent kernel session, the first call of g[4] takes a few milliseconds to retrieve the result from persistent storage:

g[4] // AbsoluteTiming
(* {0.009047, 16} *)

After this first call, every further call of g[4] only takes a few nanoseconds because of classical memoization:

g[4] // RepeatedTiming
(* {1.5*10^-7, 16} *)

How to categorize, inspect, and delete persistent objects

A certain wariness with persistent storage is in order. Note that persistent storage will never be consulted unless you explicitly wrap an expression in Once; there is no problem with these persistent objects contaminating unrelated calculations.

Nonetheless in practice I keep the persistent storage pool as clean as possible. The principal tool is to segregate persistent values from different calculations by storing them in different directories on the storage medium. For a given calculation, we can set up a storage location with, for example,

If you don't do this (or set cacheloc = "Local" as in the f[0] and g[4] examples above), then all persistent values are stored in the $DefaultLocalBase directory. We can always simply delete such storage directories in order to clean up.

We use persistent storage to remember calculations in such a specific directory with

$\begingroup$Do you use this in practice? It feels a bit dangerous to make definitions unconditionally persistent ... Could you add the command to reset these definitions (in case someone messes up their Mathematica and needs a way to revert it)?$\endgroup$
– SzabolcsMar 15 '19 at 11:18

$\begingroup$@Szabolcs yes I agree, see my edit. Thanks for bringing this up, it was a hurdle for me to get started too.$\endgroup$
– RomanMar 15 '19 at 14:28

Like in all other systems I am familiar with, variable and function definitions exist in memory (RAM) only and do not persist across sessions.

If you want a definition to persist, you must save it explicitly. See Save and DumpSave.

However, what I recommend for cases like yours is not to store such data in DownValue definitions. Store them in a data structure that is easy to serialize, then save them to a file. So, instead of f[1]=a; f[2]=b; f[3]=c use a list {a,b,c}. If the indices are not contiguous, you can use a SparseArray or Association. You can save any data that is stored as a Mathematica expression into an MX file, which is the most practical and flexible format for short-term storage (not for archiving because of weak cross-version compatibility promises). For archiving or for exchange with other systems, consider JSON: any expression that consists of lists, associations, numbers and strings can be saved to JSON.

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